Friday, July 8, 2011

Who wants us to be illiterate? - 2

When I was a child, I never cared about all these things or in other words I never bothered anything about my status in class. I remember that I never scored anything better than a silver medal in class (or A grade, which means that I was in the above average group) and if you told me something like first rank, I would ask what it was! But as I grew up and changed my school, in UP, i.e from my 5th std, I suddenly found myself in a limelight! I started becoming first in my class! From then onwards I found myself hurled up into the run for top position! Same happened again when I was shifted to high school also, but in the long run, I somehow used to manage to get to the first position almost everywhere and in everything which I did. So I was sort of enjoying the first position, when suddenly after BSc I became second and the hell I made out of it was so horrible that, I didn't believe in myself for a long time, due to which I made a hell out of me during my MSc also. But there's a lesson to be learned from what I had experienced when I was 20. Because, I was supposed to be one who will make it to the rank or something, which I knew I'd never make, but others had placed their genuine/fake expectations on me. So what is the lesson to be learnt? A person who scored 95.5% in her BSc started hating her mark only because she couldn't score 98% which she wanted to, (but other people thought I was a super girl or something that I'd score 99%!), and she had started rating herself on the basis of her marks only! Sorry to say this, but I learnt the lesson that one should never estimate one's own quality based on marks which they score in exams. Infact retrospecting truly I find that I'm a happy go lucky fellow who really wants to enjoy life and learn things not score, but who somehow got caught up in the "being brilliant" business just because I'm a bit above average! But I learned another very valuable lesson in life, that even when I was never a rank holder all over the state or all over India, I always went for higher studies. Its like not being the top scorer in each level in a game but a person who scores enough to go up the levels in it and be able to play it till the end. I hope I'll keep going. :)

What I wanted to tell using my own example is that, it doesn't really matter how high you score, because you've to be able to go up in life. So when the institutions put cut off of near cent percent, it is like setting unrealistic goals for people. I don't believe education is not something where you should encourage (directly or indirectly) unnecessary competitions. I've seen people copying in their exams to get high scores in exams. Then what is the point of having studied upto some very high classes? Score are not everything. If somebody sets 100% cut off and somebody score by treachery, the one who scored 60% or 80% by hard work or truthfulness is being subjected to injustice. Right? Its not that all who score are cheats. But young people should be subjected to so much pressure in the name of scores or excellence or whatever stuff. In my opinion those who had enjoyed childhood (when I mean childhood, I'm including teenagers also, because at my age, I feel that they are children) well have the best chance of blooming up in life. One should definitely study, and as the "above average student" I'm for studying, but not beyond a limit or the children should not be forced to study beyond their capacities. If one doesn't use his/her capacity to the full amount it is bad, but even forcing a bright student to score beyond his limit, (like for example, you score 95 and people tell you that you should have score 99%) one is very likely to be a victim of the following thoughts :

1) I scored well, even then my parents don't appreciate me. They love me only for my marks. :(

2) Nobody accepts my talent. Then why should I be talented?

3) I worked hard this much, even then I scored this much only, there's no point working hard (or even working) in life at all.

Consequence:

1) The person loses self confidence.
2) Feels distance to everybody and starts to turn away form everybody.
3)Stops doing the hard work/work he/she used to do.

Extreme step, thinks about suiciding.
Second extreme : depression.

So my question is this: What is the real purpose of education? To enlighten people and fill their lives with hope, or to hurl people into the realm of unhealthy competitions and expectations and depress them to the point of thinking about taking their own lives?


To be continued................................................

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